Inventing Elsa Maxwell

Author : Sam Staggs
Publisher : St. Martin's Press
ISBN 13 : 1250017750
Total Pages : 390 pages
Book Rating : 4.58/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Inventing Elsa Maxwell written by Sam Staggs and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2012-10-16 with total page 390 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Inventing Elsa Maxwell, the first biography of this extraordinary woman, tells the witty story of a life lived out loud. With Inventing Elsa Maxwell, Sam Staggs has crafted a landmark biography. Elsa Maxwell (1881-1963) invented herself–not once, but repeatedly. Built like a bulldog, she ascended from the San Francisco middle class to the heights of society in New York, London, Paris, Venice, and Monte Carlo. Shunning boredom and predictability, Elsa established herself as party-giver extraordinaire in Europe with come-as-you-are parties, treasure hunts (e.g., retrieve a slipper from the foot of a singer at the Casino de Paris), and murder parties that drew the ire of the British parliament. She set New York a-twitter with her soirees at the Waldorf, her costume parties, and her headline-grabbing guest lists of the rich and royal, movie stars, society high and low, and those on the make all mixed together in let-'er-rip gaiety. All the while, Elsa dashed off newspaper columns, made films in Hollywood, wrote bestselling books, and turned up on TV talk shows. She hobnobbed with friends like Noel Coward and Cole Porter. Late in life, she fell in love with Maria Callas, who spurned her and broke Elsa's heart. Her feud with the Duchess of Windsor made headlines for three years in the 1950s. One of the twentieth century's most colorful characters is brought back to life in this biography by the author of All About All About Eve.

Author : Sam Staggs
Publisher : Macmillan
ISBN 13 : 0312699441
Total Pages : 352 pages
Book Rating : 4.44/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Inventing Elsa Maxwell written by Sam Staggs and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2012-10-16 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chronicles the life and career of Elsa Maxwell, who was an actress, socialite and the queen of party giving.

Author : Elsa Maxwell
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 362 pages
Book Rating : 4.85/5 ( download)

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Download or read book R.S.V.P. written by Elsa Maxwell and published by . This book was released on 1954 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "She has been a pianist in a nickelodeon; an accompanist for a vaudeville star; a song writer; a partner in two Paris night clubs; a consultant to a dressmaker; a press agent for Monte Carlo; an actress in the movies, theater, radio and television; a script writer; a newpaper columnist; a contributor to magazines; and a lecturer. Recognized as an arbiter of international society and one of the world's most famous hostesses, the first party she ever gave for royalty cost seven dollars for a dozen guests... When she was twelve in San Francisco she was told she wouldn't be invited to a certain party because her family was too poor. 'I swore to myself I would give great parties all over the world to which everyone would want to come, but the rich would be invited only if they had something more important to offer than money'"--from jacket flaps.

Author : Sam Staggs
Publisher : Macmillan + ORM
ISBN 13 : 1466830433
Total Pages : 505 pages
Book Rating : 4.31/5 ( download)

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Download or read book All About "All About Eve" written by Sam Staggs and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2001-06-23 with total page 505 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To millions of fans, All About Eve represents all that's witty and wonderful in classic Hollywood movies. Its old-fashioned, larger-than-life stars--including Bette Davis, Marilyn Monroe, Anne Baxter, George Sanders, and Celeste Holm--found their best roles in Eve and its sophisticated dialogue has entered the lexicon. But there's much more to know about All About Eve. Sam Staggs has written the definitive account of the making of this fascinating movie and its enormous influence on both film and popular culture. Staggs reveals everything about the movie--from who the famous European actress Margo Channing was based on to the hot-blooded romance on-set between Bette Davis and costar Gary Merrill, from the jump-start the movie gave Marilyn Monroe's career and the capstone it put on director Joseph L. Mankeiwicz's. All About "All About Eve" is not only full of rich detail about the movie, the director, and the stars, but also about the audience who loved it when it came out and adore it to this day.

Author : Dianna De La Garza
Publisher : Feiwel & Friends
ISBN 13 : 1250143322
Total Pages : 304 pages
Book Rating : 4.27/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Falling with Wings: A Mother's Story written by Dianna De La Garza and published by Feiwel & Friends. This book was released on 2018-03-06 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Before she was mother to global superstar Demi Lovato, she was just Dianna Hart. Dianna tells her story from the very beginning in this complete and genuinely affecting memoir. She had big plans of becoming a country music star, but her life went in a different direction than her dreams. She developed an eating disorder early in life to gain a sense of control in her strict upbringing. As she continued to struggle with body image and her obsession with being perfect her entire adult life, she was also met with other difficult situations. Her husband and father of her two eldest daughters, Dallas and Demi, had his own troubles that effected the entire family. She coped with alcohol and pills, forming a long-lasting addiction. She's had terrible lows but also some great highs as she watched her daughters break out in Hollywood to become strong, empowered young women. As a mother caring for daughters with addictions while continuing to battle her own, Dianna offers a unique perspective. And as a family, they have survived everything life has thrown at them and come away from it stronger than ever. Dianna tells her story of living through and surviving adversity--with tremendous strength, love and faith.

Author : Philip Smith
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1416579656
Total Pages : 497 pages
Book Rating : 4.56/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Walking Through Walls written by Philip Smith and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2008-09-16 with total page 497 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Running with Scissors meets Bewitched in this irresistible memoir, as Philip Smith describes growing up in 1960s Miami with his decorator father, who one day discovers he has the miraculous power to talk to the dead and heal the sick. After a full day of creating beautiful interiors for the rich and famous, Lew Smith would come home, take off his tie, and get down to his real work as a psychic healer who miraculously cured thousands of people. For his son, Philip, watching his father transform himself, at a moment's notice, from gracious society decorator into a healer with supernatural powers was a bit like living with Clark Kent and Superman. Walking Through Walls is Philip Smith's astonishing memoir of growing up in a household where séances, talking spirits, and exorcisms were daily occurrences, and inexplicable psychic healings resulted in visitors suddenly discarding their crutches and wheelchairs or being cured of fatal diseases. While there are benefits to having a miracle man in the house, Philip soon discovers the downside of living with a father who psychically knows everything he is doing. Surrounded by invisible spirits who tend to behave like nagging relatives, Philip looks for ways to escape his mystical home life—including forays into sex, surfing, and even Scientology. By turns hilarious and profound, Walking Through Walls recounts Philip Smith's often bizarre but always magical coming of age in a household that felt like a cross between Lourdes and the set of Rosemary's Baby, and shows how he managed to map out his own identity in the shadow of a father who, truly, loomed larger than life itself.

Author : Alastair Dallas
Publisher : Theme Park Press
ISBN 13 : 9781683901716
Total Pages : 416 pages
Book Rating : 4.11/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Inventing Disneyland written by Alastair Dallas and published by Theme Park Press. This book was released on 2018-12 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Meet the cadre of six men who imagined and described the specifics of Walt Disney’s vision for a new kind of family entertainment park—the men of WED Enterprises, who began the process of inventing Disneyland. Enter the bustling 'Disneyland Plans Room' at Walt Disney’s custom-designed studio. Disney drew upon the talents of tinkerers and hobbyists, artists, writers, engineers, architects, builders, and—especially—Hollywood art directors to realize his dream. See the site transformed from moonscape to wonderland and struggle along with the park’s management as they rush headlong toward an opening day that seems impossible to achieve. Based on years of original research and interviews, this is the true but unauthorized story—complete with vintage photos—of just what it took to invent the happiest place on earth and make Walt Disney's dream come true"--Back cover.

Author : Sam Staggs
Publisher : Macmillan
ISBN 13 : 1466830484
Total Pages : 497 pages
Book Rating : 4.86/5 ( download)

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Download or read book When Blanche Met Brando written by Sam Staggs and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2006-07-25 with total page 497 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Exhaustively researched and almost flirtatiously opinionated, When Blanche Met Brando is everything a fan needs to know about the ground-breaking New York and London stage productions of Williams' "Streetcar" as well as the classic Brando/Leigh film. Sam Staggs' interviews with all the living cast members of each production will enhance what's known about the play and movie, and help make this book satisfying as both a pop culture read and as a deeper piece of thinking about a well-known story. Readers will come away from this book delighted with the juicy behind-the-scenes stories about cast, director, playwright and the various productions and will also renew their curiosity about the connection between the role of Blanche and Viven Leigh's insatiable sexual appetite and later descent into breakdown. They may also-for the first time-question whether the character of Blanche was actually "mad" or whether her anxiousness was symptomatic of another disorder. "A Streetcar Named Desire" is one of the most haunting and most-studied modern plays. Staggs' new book will fascinate fans and richen newcomers' understanding of its importance in American theater and movie history.

Author : Alexander Ghedi Weheliye
Publisher : Duke University Press
ISBN 13 : 0822376490
Total Pages : 335 pages
Book Rating : 4.91/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Habeas Viscus written by Alexander Ghedi Weheliye and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2014-08-20 with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Habeas Viscus focuses attention on the centrality of race to notions of the human. Alexander G. Weheliye develops a theory of "racializing assemblages," taking race as a set of sociopolitical processes that discipline humanity into full humans, not-quite-humans, and nonhumans. This disciplining, while not biological per se, frequently depends on anchoring political hierarchies in human flesh. The work of the black feminist scholars Hortense Spillers and Sylvia Wynter is vital to Weheliye's argument. Particularly significant are their contributions to the intellectual project of black studies vis-à-vis racialization and the category of the human in western modernity. Wynter and Spillers configure black studies as an endeavor to disrupt the governing conception of humanity as synonymous with white, western man. Weheliye posits black feminist theories of modern humanity as useful correctives to the "bare life and biopolitics discourse" exemplified by the works of Giorgio Agamben and Michel Foucault, which, Weheliye contends, vastly underestimate the conceptual and political significance of race in constructions of the human. Habeas Viscus reveals the pressing need to make the insights of black studies and black feminism foundational to the study of modern humanity.

Author : Tom Lewis
Publisher : Cornell University Press
ISBN 13 : 1501759337
Total Pages : 446 pages
Book Rating : 4.38/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Empire of the Air written by Tom Lewis and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2021-09-15 with total page 446 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Empire of the Air tells the story of three American visionaries—Lee de Forest, Edwin Howard Armstrong, and David Sarnoff—whose imagination and dreams turned a hobbyist's toy into radio, launching the modern communications age. Tom Lewis weaves the story of these men and their achievements into a richly detailed and moving narrative that spans the first half of the twentieth century, a time when the American romance with science and technology was at its peak. Empire of the Air is a tale of pioneers on the frontier of a new technology, of American entrepreneurial spirit, and of the tragic collision between inventor and corporation.